It’s been a tough year, but with a light at the end of the tunnel now is not the time to drop our defences against the novel coronavirus, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday.
“Our fight against this virus is far from over even as we’re preparing to say goodbye — and good riddance — to 2020,” Trudeau said. “It may be the holiday season but we have to be more careful than ever.”
Vaccinations against COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, began rolling out this week nearly a year after the pandemic transformed life for many in Canada and around the world.
As Canada embarks on the largest immunization campaign in its history, Trudeau said he is confident the country has the planning and expertise in place to get the job done.
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While that’s good news, the prime minister cautioned that there’s still a long way to go.
“We are still very much in the middle of this second wave,” Trudeau said.
1:33 Prime Minister Trudeau meets with COVID-19 vaccine recipients in Ottawa
Prime Minister Trudeau meets with COVID-19 vaccine recipients in Ottawa
Trudeau confirmed Friday that Canada is set to receive 500,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine by the end of January, with 125,000 doses of the vaccine arriving every week.
Four million doses of the Pfizer vaccine should arrive in Canada by the end of March, Procurement Minister Anita Anand said at a separate press conference Friday. That’s enough to vaccinate two million people.
Update on vaccines: In January, we’ll be getting 125,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine each week – for a total of 500,000 doses that month. With the guaranteed millions of doses coming into our country in 2021, every Canadian who wants a vaccine will be able to get one.
Canada should also see doses of the Moderna vaccine begin to arrive before the end of December, pending regulatory approval, with more to come in the first few months of 2021.
Priority groups are first in line, with the goal of administering vaccines to the majority of Canadians by the end of the summer.
“With the guaranteed millions of doses coming in 2021, every Canadian who wants a vaccine will get one, no matter where they live,” Trudeau said.
But that promise of a future vaccine won’t help you if you become ill with COVID-19 while you wait for your turn, Trudeau said.
“Getting a vaccine in a week or in a month won’t do you any good if you catch COVID-19 today,” Trudeau said. “That’s why we need to keep working to halt the spread of COVID-19. So please continue to follow public guidelines.”
Canada is seeing daily case counts soar to new heights in the days heading into the Christmas holiday season. More than 7,000 confirmed cases of the virus were confirmed Thursday, marking a new daily milestone as infections continue to climb at a worrying rate.
Two of the largest provinces — Ontario and Alberta — hit grim milestones this week, as well. Ontario marked a new record of daily cases, while Alberta saw its highest number of deaths in a single day since the pandemic began.
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There is growing pressure to further tighten restrictions within the hardest-hit parts of the country, particularly as hospitals fall under increasing strain. Doctors in Ontario have called for further shutdowns, warning of bed shortages, and increased deaths should the number of patients continue to grow.
Hospitals in Alberta and Quebec are warning of similar outcomes. Many have been forced to scale back health-care services and elective surgeries to attend to COVID-19 patients — an indication that things are headed for the worst, experts say.
The concerning numbers are starkly juxtaposed with the arrival of vaccines in Canada.
1:32 Coronavirus: Canada secures 2nd agreement with Moderna for early vaccine doses
Coronavirus: Canada secures 2nd agreement with Moderna for early vaccine doses
Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine has already been doled out in a number of provinces. A second vaccine, from Moderna, is expected to be approved by Health Canada soon with 168,000 doses set to arrive in the country before the end of the year.
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is also working toward issuing an emergency use authorization of the vaccine. U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence alluded to the imminent approval while he received his vaccination on Friday morning during a live televised event.
“The American people can be confident: we have one and perhaps within hours two safe vaccines,” Pence said.
The good news about vaccines has led many health experts, including Canada’s top doctors, to warn people not to let their guard down, especially as the busy holiday season approaches.
“It is important to remember that the vast majority of Canadians remain susceptible to COVID-19,” Canada’s chief medical officer Dr. Theresa Tam said in a statement Thursday.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
